French Vampire Literature in the Nineteenth Century

Abstract

As soon as it was translated into French, John William Polidori’s short novel The Vampyre published under Lord Byron’s authorship in 1819 became a bestseller in France. It inspired melodramas, comedies and operettas which had astounding success on stage. They were followed by short stories and novels, some of them being written by popular novelists like Ponson du Terrail and Paul Féval. Apart from a few classics like “La Morte amoureuse” by Théophile Gautier, La Ville Vampire by Féval and “Le Horla” by Guy de Maupassant, much of this literary production might have been entirely forgotten, if a new interest in it had not recently sprung up, not only in France but in the United Kingdom as well. This chapter intends to be a contribution to this revival.